Design a Tea offers 2 samples of your choosing on their site (designed by you) for $1. You choose between black, oolong or green and then 2 flavors. Reading the site closer, the flavorings are said to be natural and organic. You get one teabag of each choice. Sent very quickly (I’m not as quick to review however).

This is a black tea, which is Ceylon blend. I added chocolate and caramel as flavor choices. Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting much. Well, I was wrong. I was very careful to brew properly, added a tbs. of (crystal) sugar. I actually did not need to add so much sugar (too sweet). The black tea is not bashful, but behaves (not bitter). The chocolate and caramel add a dessert yummy character to it that I like a lot. As is cools, the caramel is overpowering the chocolate (boo), but it’s still good.

If I didn’t already have a tin of Upton Chocolate Earl Grey and Creme Caramel (which I have combined with good results), this would be on my order list. Think I’ll add it though, just so I don’t forget about it. With only one teabag to test, all reminders are gone : )

Preparation

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Originally started testing teas, to replace a lifelong Coke (Coca-Cola) habit. Now I’m just amazed at all the choices. Still in beginner stage of tea education. Until I get really good at iced/cold tea, the Coke habit remains, but is down to a minimum.

My cupboard here on Steepster was ridiculous, containing each and every sample size that I have been accumulating. It now only contains non-sample size teas. Loose leaf outweighs the bagged teas, but it doesn’t look that way by the list (over 100 samples).

I started my tea journey testing flavored teas. My favorites are chai and mint flavored teas, along with Earl Grey. Also like chocolate, caramel, coconut, almond, vanilla, cinnamon, clove and some others. Most flavors are better with a nice black tea base. The mint ones seem best paired with greens. I’m branching out now to unflavored teas and it is way more overwhelming then the flavored category. Phew.

My (grown) son has decided that he wants to try to find tea that he likes too, so I’ll be passing along the ones I don’t care for to him (with instructions to then pass them on to his sister…evil plot? yes!). So I’ve removed my shopping list from Steepster and moved it to a spreadsheet (swaps are out for now). My shopping list had grown to 197! By going through each one, I was able to split that in half (since many were added in beginning, before I knew what I like/don’t like).

While not swapping, if there’s something in my cupboard that you’d like a sample of, please feel free to ask : )

Ratings (for now):
90s: Must have in personal rotation. Crave it.
80s: Makes me a happy tea drinker. Very good. Unsure of long term relationship.
70s: Like this. Will drink what I have (sample/tin/box), but unsure of whether I’d buy again.
60s: Probably a good tea for what it is. Just not to my personal liking.
50s and below: Do not like…at all. Either poor quality, yuck flavor or … (see tealog).

Old (and still current) obsessions: books, music and fragrances. Hopefully my tea collection stays much more “normal” then those. (too late)